Buying a house built in 1920s - thoughts please?

[Ftbhere]

We are first time buyers. We have just had a building survey done for a house built in the 1920s. There are some problems which have been identified - some are minor which doesn't need immediate attention, but some are major like immediate work needed on the roof. We are in the process of getting builder quotes and plan to go back to the sellers to negotiate on the price.
But what are your thoughts on buying a house which is 100 years old! Would you avoid it? Lots of potential problems? Or would you be open to buying it and why?
Thanks a lot.

Someone told me you need to budget £1,500 a year on a victorian terrace to keep it in good nick. If someone's been there a while and not done that then not at all surprised if a lot of work needs doing. Whatever you spend to get the outstanding bits done, things will crop up, even if you throw loads at it, give it a couple of years and something else will go wrong, but I'd still rather live in an old place.

Ours is over 400 years old. When we bought it 22 years ago the survey was terrifying. We figured the house had stood since 1610 so there couldn’t be much wrong with it.

All the money we’ve spent has been undoing The Bodgers’ diy with the exception of a new kitchen when we moved in and replacing a bathroom. The kitchen’s lasted 21 years and is being redone next year.

It’s pretty, quirky and filled with character. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

When we bought our 120 year old Edwardian semi 5 years ago, it was a state...but then you could tell that walking through on the viewings. As PP mention, it really depends on how the property has been maintained.

Our vendor had owned the house for 32 years, and the fuse box looked like it had last been changed 50 years ago! There was an open gas meter in one of the rooms (which we had to pay the Centrica parent company to come and move as it was unsafe), and the boiler was in a bedroom.

It wasn't initially priced accordingly, however the amount of work recommended became crystal clear when the survey came through, and we were able to negotiate further. We did the majority of improvements to bring it up to modern standards (though far from everything in the structural report), and now have a beautiful home with high ceilings and large rooms which we're about to sell.

Surveyors have to include a fair amount of whatifs, so I'd make your judgement based on what realistically needs to be done to modernise/improve, and what you can live with.

Our next house will be a 1930's semi which when I hear talk about them consider to be reasonably modern, but thinking about it, are nearly 100 years old. They tend to be solid, sturdy brick built houses, with decent room sizes (other than the box room!). They don't tend to be money pits, unless there's lots of botched DIY to unpick.

We sold a 1920s house last year. The house was absolutely lovely with lots of original features (or features we put back in). Our buyers' survey came back with the recommendation to replace the roof immediately. We had done a loft extension a few years prior to selling the house and the builders had removed the original roof tiles for the works but then put them back on. I remember a couple of them had moved slightly out of place but overall they were ok.
From my own experience of living in the house we never had a single leak and I am sure the roof would have lasted fine for years.

Our buyers got quotes and then asked for about £10k off the asking price, we met them half way. Not sure if we would have been as accommodating had they not offered asking price to begin with.
But it's definitely something that enables you to negotiate a discount, but it all depends on your seller and their position. We had found our current house and were keen to proceed and didn't want to lose our buyer.

Our house is early Victorian. The surveyors report highlighted a number of issues but we spoke to several builders and craftsmen and had it all done over a number of years. It cost us more to get the sash windows re hung properly and the floors treated and polished but it was worth it. I’m not a fan of modern houses. A lot of them are shoddily built and cramped little boxes.

Ours is a similar age to that. We did re-roof and we had to re-point as it was needed and it had to be lime mortar.
The biggest thing is our house is quite cold. It doesnt have cavity wall insulation and we are nervous about doing it because it can cause damp in this type of house.

Our current house was built in the 1920s. It's bloody solid, to the point that it's actually quite difficult to get nails etc into the wall if you want to hang a picture or something. We joke that it was obviously built with the war in mind!

Any house requires ongoing maintenance, so I wouldn't stress about it too much.

Oh yes I can also add our 1920s was super solid and the dimensions spacious for a London house. You can do so much with them... open plan kitchen diners, potentially extend out the back, loft extensions. Add back features like fireplace surrounds and picture rails, discover features that were boarded up, paint front door a lovely colour etc etc.
We had to replace windows, completely upgrade the heating system and electrics, sand floor boards. When we moved in we had to remove layers upon layers of wallpaper that had been added over the decades. Got a new front door and painted the outside of the house.
I suppose the big ticket item would be a new roof. Think about if you want to extend into the loft and do the works then.
I love 1920s houses!

The age of the house is irrelevant really, much of the Uk housing stock is older, minds 400 years old. Clearly though you need to read the survey properly understand the costs if anything needs doing and decide if you can afford it. Which it seems you’re doing.

It’s a bit immature and silly to say you’re fixing years of botched jobs, that’s really not the case for most houses.

"It’s a bit immature and silly to say you’re fixing years of botched jobs, that’s really not the case for most houses."

Umm in our previous house, that wasn't the case, proper builders had done a proper job over the years - electrics needed an upgrade - but that wasn't much. We got a new bathroom put in and there was no issues.

This house - 2 new bathrooms and much scratching of heads as to the incredbly cheap pipework put in previously, the state of the cold water tank, the positioning of the boiler controls, the windows where a bit of upvc had been tacked on with sellotape to hide the gaps in the walls.....

The basic fabric of the house is sound - but there has been some real bodge work done on it in the last 30 years.

It’s a bit immature and silly to say you’re fixing years of botched jobs, that’s really not the case for most houses

Yep, we were really immature and silly when we replaced the electric wire held together with gaffer tape that was resting on a 400 year old oak beam. And that’s just the worst of a whole plethora of budging we’ve put right.

@VinylDetective

It’s a bit immature and silly to say you’re fixing years of botched jobs, that’s really not the case for most houses

Yep, we were really immature and silly when we replaced the electric wire held together with gaffer tape that was resting on a 400 year old oak beam. And that’s just the worst of a whole plethora of budging we’ve put right.

Just because you had a bad house doesn’t mean every house is like that,

Ffs Bluntness! It wasn’t a bad house. It’s a house that had been owned by enthusiastic diyers with low standards. Most people can’t be arsed to do stuff themselves any more so houses like that are less common but it was almost the norm when we bought this.

@VinylDetective

Ffs Bluntness! It wasn’t a bad house. It’s a house that had been owned by enthusiastic diyers with low standards. Most people can’t be arsed to do stuff themselves any more so houses like that are less common but it was almost the norm when we bought this.

Ok, calm down, you’re now saying the same as me, which this is not common. She’s a first time buyer, anyone leading her to believe that if she buys an older house it’s going to be full of botched jobs is doing her a disservice, it might me, it’s usually not, and you can find botched jobs in any property, snd quite frankly now common more in new builds.

I think it’s absolutely the norm for old houses. Where we live now is an area of Georgian and early Victorian grand terraces and individual houses, and, having got to know neighbours the way you do when you start renovating a visibly longterm neglected eyesore, everyone has the same story— botched DIY, previous owners who split a house into bedsits themselves, ‘plumbed’ things in by draping hosepipe in one window and out another, added a heating system without taking out the old one, blocking fireplaces by pushing pillows up the flue.

I hear similar things from friends who are architects specialising in old buildings.

The surveyor has to put down everything that can possibly be wrong with the house on the report. Have a chat with them on the phone to get a clear idea of what they really think

I have a 1920s house which needed a fair bit of work - new roof, windows, rewire, ceilings came down, etc. But it is a solid house with loads of character and I love it.

One of the most important things to consider is how the house was originally meant to function and be careful not to compromise that - eg modern damp proofing injection (which is a con. Most 1920s houses have a slate damp proof course which does not suddenly stop working) and cavity wall insulation can stop the house breathing.

Oh yes, as PP said walls are a bit too solid! I bought a really good hammer drill though and that has made it easier to hang things.

All houses need ongoing maintenance. Today’s new builds will have outdated boilers in 10 years time, electrics that don’t meet standard, windows that are past it, roofs that need sorted, etc etc. You’re not going to have paid off your mortgage by then.

Of course if your roof leaks and you ignore it for a decade, then you’ll have damp or rot issues. Thats irrespective of the age of the house. Some modern materials have a (relatively) short lifespan, so Id not be convinced that a 25-year-old house was structurally “better” than a 125 year old house.

But my house dates from 1730, been here 18 years and not yet found any old botches, previous one was 1680, again, no bad issues uncovered (other than newspaper as carpet underlay, which isn’t exactly structural...).

Do you like the house? Can you ask the surveyor for info on the points raised?